Schools worldwide are paying as much as $6,500 a day to hire a tattooed, pierced and bearded ruffian with no credentials to impart anti-bullying wisdom to pupils, reports CNN.

The Scary Guy, once an average fellow who went by the conservative name of Earl, changed his name in 1998 and hit the road in an attempt to educate – “edu-tain” is the verb he prefers – school children about the evils of bullying.

To promote this noble cause, he uses tactics such as rubbing his belly, shouting, exposing his tattooed body, groaning and, of course, vomiting apples.

As Earl, he used always to find fault with “just about anyone”, verbally bullying those around him, or, as he puts it, “killing them with [his] words,” until he realized the pain he was causing and, much like the Earl of My Name Is fame, began trying to make up for his past wrongdoings.

His unorthodox stunts, which involve shouting abuse at people – this is the first time “geek in the wheelchair” has been used as a rallying cry for bullying prevention – has inevitably divided teachers into the camps of either awestruck admiration or hand-wringing regret.

The latter includes one Minnesota school principal who was shocked by Scary remarking “Oh, that’s the best sex I’ve had all day!” after shaking hands with a child.

On his officially scary website, Scary refers to himself with a whole array of lofty titles, including An Urban Dalai Lama, A Prophet of Peace and, in keeping with the religious tone, A True Light in the Dark, giving the bully’s habit of “calling names” a whole new meaning.

This article assumes too much. Where's the influence of God's will in this piece. We must spread the gospel. These prosecutions where already mentioned in the bible. To speak out against what we were supposed to do and the odds we would face is saying that we know better. I don't like what happens to these other Christians but they have more courage than those that can't bear it and try to find solace in the temporary fixations of an easy life. God bless the saints.

Israel is a Zionist state, not a Jewish state. There's a difference. For a long time I thought that they were the same thing. I researched and found Internet sites that were pro Jewish and anti Zionism.

It should be plainly obvious that the British stole the land from the indigenous people of the area to create the state of Israel. Ever since, there has been conflict that purports to be of a religious nature, when in fact it is simply the locals demanding their land back.

Brian, I get your point; however, it is not the silence of Christians only that is involved nor is religious violence apparent only in the guise of Islam. One must also consider the violence of Christians against Christians in South Sudan, the violence of Christians against Muslims in the Central African Republic, the violence of Buddhists against Muslims in Myanmar, etc. Violence is man's inhumanity to man at its worst. When that iniquitous violence is justified in the name of any religion or faith it must be condemned. All faiths must speak up individually and collectively. You quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.” Desmond Tutu put it another way, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." And Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke of silence as a type of spiritual death when he said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." We all must speak up about the crazies who claim to be within our faiths. As for the title of your article, I would note, in most cases of sectarian violence, it is in reality not faith-based; but politically based.

"Israel/Palestine solutions will require us to stand strong for Israel’s
right to exist in peace and safety, while standing equally strong
against the ongoing occupation."

If only. However I must remind the author that right-wing churches and Christians HATE the Palestinians. They do not believe that Palestine was wronged and continues to be wronged by plunking down a bunch of Europeans amongst them on their land.

Only a concerted world effort to force Israel to be happy with the 78% of historic Palestine that it has already managed to get, and that has been accepted by Arab Palestinians, will stop the violence.

But right wing Christians, slaves to the 'bagger led GOP wingnuts, are just as extreme as any would be terrorist, I am regularly told online that Palestinians do not exist as I am also told that there is no such thing as Palestine (the Newt Gingrich syndrome). Wingnut Christians cannot be bothered by UN resolutions such as 181 and 242. Nope, they only know hatred and they support today's Israel whose ball games regularly have chants of "death to the Arabs" in a strange echo of what they perceive to be happening in Muslim circles.

One of the largest problems is that the Bush junior administration convinced gullible "conservative" Christians into believing that the worlds 1.5 Billion Muslims seek to kill them. This illogical claim makes no sense of course because if that was the true intent by 1.5 Billion Muslims, we would all already be dead, starting with Israel.

For people who truly seek peace, convince Israel to stop its illegal colonists from stealing more land and resources and force them back to within their borders. Starting there would make the entire world kneel down in amazement that the United States had finally come to its senses and stopped bankrolling the illegal land theft and murders carried out by Israel's corrupt and murderous occupation army in an insane quest for the impossible dream of a "Greater Israel".

As long as the world's religions continue to preach "we're right and they are wrong", the strife will continue. I am not singling out the Christian faith by any means; all are guilty of it to some degree. As long as it's us against them (whichever side of "against" you come down on), the hate and mistrust colonizes the next generation like black mold.

As long as the concept of religion exists, there will be those that claim their brand is better than the other brand, and will use violence when confronted with anything outside their ideological mindset.

The real problem is religion itself. Long ago, I thought the world would rapidly evolve to minimize this nonsense, but there are adherents everywhere that won't let it die out. The two worst things mankind ever invented are religion and government, as they reinforce each other.

"Throne and alter were twins--two vultures from the same egg.

To attack the king was treason; to dispute the priest, blasphemy.

The sword and cross were allies.

Together they attacked the rights of men; they defended each other.

The king owned the bodies of men, the priests the souls.

One lived on taxes collected by force, the other on alms collected by fear.

Both robbers, both beggars.

The king made laws, the priest made creeds.

With bowed backs the people carried the burdens of one, with open-mouthed wonder received the dogmas of the other.

The king said rags and hovels for you, robes and palaces for me.

The priest said God made you ignorant and immoral; He made me holy and wise; you are the sheep, I am the shepherd; your fleeces belong to me.

I agree with much of this, but I believe the writer is somewhat
confused about the Israeli "occupation" causing anti-Christian
sentiment. The Israeli presence in the West Bank is the effect of Arab
(primarily Muslim) violence against Jews in Israel (Remember the
combined armies of four Arab countries with the help of the Palestinians
invaded Israel open its founding in 1948.). It is not the cause. This
article insinuates the opposite. I am not defending Israel's decision
to control the West Bank, but I do understand it. Christian communities in the Middle East were persecuted long before the establishment of Israel or American support for it.

@DanBruce That is a baldfaced lie. Jews and Christians can live freely in Palestine as Palestinian citizens. With good reason, Palestine does not want any Israeli citizens still living their under protection of the murderous IDF because that is still occupation.

@JoeInFla No Joe, as informed readers know Israel is not happy with the 78% of historic Palestine it managed to get. The rogue state fully intends to not only illegally colonize the West Bank and Ethnically Cleanse the area of Palestinians but it illegally occupies the Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms in Lebanon and it wants southern Lebanon all the way to the Litani. Antisemitism is on the rise because of US support of these crimes and American Jews have had it with right-wing nutball Bibi and Israel as pointed out in the last couple of days in Haaretz. The only way to eliminate the terrorism driven by Israel is to sanction the rogue state until it stops it's illegal actions.

Are you here to say that if someone coveted your land and stole it that you would just sit there? If not, then do not expect Arab Palestinians to just "sit there". They rightfully have tried to protect their land that was stolen from them out of Western guilt for the Holocaust. Plunking down a bunch of Europeans on their land was always a bad idea. It was already populated and owned by Arab Palestinians.